Civilisations V

May 15, 2011

Finally managed to buy Civ V yesterday at US$29.99 from MacUpdate Promo. It’s a steal given how good the game is and the amount of re-playability it provides. Furthermore, it comes with SteamPlay (allowing PC + Mac play) and it’s really value for money.

Another thing I’m impressed by, albeit late, is that Steam is an awesome game delivery platform. It is even more seamless than Apple iTunes Music or App Store and it has intensive automation. Games that you own are patched automatically without the need for manually clicking through patch-installation screens. Most probably, you would not have noticed that your game was updated.

Given Steam’s streamline game delivery with non-intrusive DRM and fair usage (buy once, play anywhere, but not concurrently), I would expect that prices of games should start falling as physical distribution costs no longer exists.

I would expect the price of digital goods to be significantly lower, not equal, to physical retail products. Otherwise, publishers are clearly ripping customers off. Think about it, would you buy an eBook that is priced the same as a physical paperback book? Or music tracks that are priced higher than compact-discs that you can find in stores? Ever wondered why digital media sales have never taken off, with the exception of Apple managed and operated digital stores, i.e. Music, Movies, Apps Stores.

The reason is clear and simple: consumers do not like being ripped off.

The publishers better learn this simple concept and put it into practice fast or they risk dwindling revenues.